Hong Kong: Wine auction houses to fight for buyers
Some of the world’s biggest auction houses are going head-to-head in Hong Kong with a series of fine and rare wine sales.
Some of the world’s biggest auction houses are going head-to-head in Hong Kong with a series of fine and rare wine sales.
Burgundy was the star of Sotheby’s most lucrative New York wine auction in 15 years, with receipts totalling over 8.4m USD – some 22% above the sale’s high estimate.
Pinot Noir from the 2014 vintage led the line in the inaugural Sonoma Barrel Auction, with a collaboration between Williams Selyem, Joseph Swan and Kosta Brown taking joint top lot.
The Premiere Napa Valley auction has set a new sales record of $6m, thanks to fierce bidding for Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California's 2013 vintage.
Strong bidding during the AfrAsia Bank Cape Wine Auction in South Africa saw total sales rise by 50% on the previous year, with Vrede en Lust, Saxenburg and Paul Cluver wines among the top lots.
Chateau Mouton Rothschild's first ex-chateau wine auction in Asia fetched a total of US$4.1m, more than double its pre-sale estimate, when it concluded this weekend at Sotheby's Hong Kong Gallery.
A cache of Krug Champagne and the lure of a private blending session with international consultant Michel Rolland helped the annual Naples Winter Wine Festival auction to raise $12m.
Burgundy’s Hospices de Beaune auction has seen sales top €8m, a record total for the third year in a row, but negociants warned the result was 'troubling' for the market.
The Hospices de Beaune is the world's oldest charity wine sale. It takes place annually in Beaune in Burgundy and has been hosted by Christie's auction house since 2005.
Each year different wines or 'cuvées' are entered into the auction all named after the benefactors who gave their vineyards to the Hospices de Beaune.
The wines will be offered 'en primeur' in barrels, or 'pièces' from that year's harvest and then tended by a négociant-éleveur before being bottled, one or two years after the sale, in the buyers choice of format. A barrel amounts to approximately 288 bottles or 24 cases of 12 bottles.
The auction takes place every year in November, with the 2014 auction number 154 in the history of Hospices de Beaune.
A return to form for Bordeaux 1982 led the line as fine wine buyers bought all lots offered in Hart Davis Hart's Bordeaux-only auction in Chicago.
A new cuvee of white wine from Beaune has been added to the auction list at the upcoming Hospices de Beaune auction, providing a 'small but welcome' boost to the overall total number of lots for sale, up 20% compared to last year.
Chicago's Hart Davis Hart will hold its first Bordeaux-only auction at the end of this month, in what could prove a key test for signs of improved buyer confidence in 2014.
Sotheby's has sold a 114-bottle 'super lot' of DRC Romanee-Conti wines for more than US$1.5m in Hong Kong, reinforcing collectors' thirst for top Burgundy and setting a new auction record.
Auctions by Christie's and Hart Davis Hart in the US show signs of improved interest in Bordeaux, but sale prices suggest buyers are wary of overspending.
Collectors' thirst for Burgundy in 2013 was not enough to prevent lower prices for Bordeaux causing a drop in Christie’s wine auction sales for the year.
Just four months after being founded, Wally's Auctions has added to evidence that New York's wine auction scene remains buoyant in autumn 2013 after its inaugural sale fetched $2.68m.
This year's Hospices de Beaune auction has achieved a record sales total, raising over EUR6.3m, despite the smallest volume of wine on sale for three decades.
Bottles of 1914 vintage Moet & Chandon Champagne have significantly beaten sales estimates at a Sotheby's auction in London, with the much-lauded 1928 vintage also faring well.
Bidders hoping for softer prices at this year's Hospices de Beaune auction, following a high sales total in 2012, could be disappointed judging by the mood during this week's preview tasting at Christie's London.
Wally's Auctions will next month add its name to New York's crowded autumn auction scene by selling a selection of lavish wines valued at around US$3m.
South Africa's premium wines are of growing interest to the continent's rising middle class, as the 39th Nederburg auction shows.